Call To Make It Better

Asher Brown and Seth Walsh, both 13, Billy Lucas and Justin Aaberg, both 15, and 18-year-old college student Tyler Clementi all killed themselves after suffering anti-gay harassment. Aaberg, Brown, Lucas, and Walsh had endured bullying at school for years; Clementi’s roommate secretly recorded him having a sexual encounter with another man, and then posted the images online.

Seth Walsh, 13 years old, of Tehachapi CA, hanged himself; Billy Lucas, 15, of Greensburg, Indiana, also hanged himself; Asher Brown, 13, of Houston, shot himself in the head; and Tyler Clementi, a college freshman in New Jersey jumped off the George Washington Bridge after classmates allegedly violated his privacy and web cast live images of him in a sexual encounter with another male.

The LGBT community is overwhelmed with sympathy and anger but feelings are not enough. The loss of these five young lives is a clarion call to action to end the epidemic of bullying in our schools. It’s time to make it better. And we all have a part to play in making it better.

A week of nationwide events are taking place to come out for our youth. We can all come out and make it better for our Youth by calling for change.

The week from October 5th and leading up to October 11, Coming Out Day is a week to

1)Remember those Youth that we have lost because of bullying in schools,

2)Show support for the LGBTQQ Youth now with It Gets Better and other ways

3) Most importantly, Call on our congress to pass the Safe Schools Improvement Act and the Student Non-Discrimination Act to end bullying now.

A website has been set up for LGBTQQ Youth to get support and to find comfort with the It Get’s Better messages. It also hosts a list events happening this week of events leading up to Coming Out Day. Organizers are invited to post their actions. And it calls for the LGBT community to make it better by calling on all senators and representatives to get legislation passed to make our schools safe. The website is at: http://makeitbetterproject.com/

This is being organized by Sean Chapin and Kelly Rivera Hart. Currently, GLSEN, GSA Network, The Trevor Project, Dan Choi, Dan Savage, Affirmation- Gay and Lesbian Mormons, Marriage Equality USA and many other groups and individuals across the country are jumping onboard to send a positive message of support and a call to pass the legislation in the House for safe schools.

“Our LGBTQQ teenagers are dying at the hands of homophobia, and as National Coming Out Day approaches, it is time for all of us in the LGBTQQ and straight ally community to not just come out for ourselves but also come out for each other and especially for our young ones who need us now more than ever,” said co-organizer Sean Chapin.

Go to the site at makeitbetterproject.com and check out the events and the videos and the resources for teens that may be considering suicide. And notice that we are all pushing for October 11th to be a day of nonstop calling on congress to pass the Safe Schools Improvement Act and the Student Non-Discrimination Act to end bullying now. Everyone everywhere is asked to go to http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt to find out who their Congressperson is and call, fax or email them on October 11th and call on them to pass this important legislation before another young life is taken from us.

If I can say anything personally, is that I had a neighbor who was much younger than me who was constantly bullied by his father to "be a man." And in the end, he hung himself in his basement. I didn't know what words I could say to him to keep him going. I didn't know of any groups that would support him in the 70's. Today, it's a very different picture and these terrible stories of lives cut short have got to end.

thanks

Kelly Rivera Hart